


WPBIO Omake--Merry Christmas

by Mangaluva



Category: Magic Kaito, 名探偵コナン | Detective Conan | Case Closed
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas oneshot, Multi, many OC babies, new baby fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-27
Updated: 2015-01-27
Packaged: 2018-03-09 07:52:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,627
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3241994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mangaluva/pseuds/Mangaluva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff"><p>For all those who read When Pandora’s Box Is Opened and begged for a little more to the story. Merry Christmas everybody, and Thank You! ♥</p></blockquote>





	WPBIO Omake--Merry Christmas

_ Ten years after Pandora _

~

Chaos was once a word that Shinichi had associated with larger events, such as explosions or helicopters with machine guns attacking Toto Tower or a free-for-all hand-to-hand battle between his closest friends and family and the leading members of the most dangerous criminal organization in the world. Chaos had been a word that had been very much associated with Kid heists.

He had never quite associated it with Christmas.

Well, maybe that wasn’t quite it. The day was just timing. The reason was children, in particular the large number that had descended on his home on Christmas Eve, due to the various mothers deciding that it would be a nice idea to spend Christmas together since it was the first one after Kaito and Aoko had returned to Japan permanently after Kaito’s very successful international magic career. It was still successful, but the boys needed to go to school, and both Kaito and Aoko point-blank refused to leave them behind. Plus, it was the first Christmas where neither Heiji nor Kazuha had pulled the Christmas Party Patrol shit detail, Heiji due to promotion and Kazuha due to being switched to desk work until the baby was born.

Which mean that Shinichi was now trying to keep seven children between the ages of two and eight entertained, no small task considering that his help consisted of Heiji, whom he was regularly having to remind to watch his language; Makoto, who had broken an arm in a recent tournament and was thus no good at chasing hyperactive children; and Kaito, who had vanished. Takagi and Shiratori had dropped off their kids before fleeing again to get a bit of work done to avoid having to work tomorrow or Boxing Day. On top of that, two of those children were six-year-old Kuroba Toichi and Kuroba Takumi.

Kuroba Kaito was trouble. Shinichi was well aware of this. He had never thought about how much trouble _two_ of him could be because some concepts are too terrifying for the human mind to contemplate.

“ _Baka!_ ”

Shinichi winced at the shrill shriek, dodging as the cackling little creatures bolted past him and bending to grab up his daughter as she ran after them with every intent of murder. He mentally wondered how long he could convince Ran that she was too young for Karate lessons.

“Calm down, Komi-chan,” he said soothingly. “What’d they do?”

“They made the football explode,” Mikomi snarled, pulling off her hat and showing him a vivid pink braid. Makoto was ushering a shellshocked seven-year-old Takagi Keiji to his feet, now with neon green hair, and trying to calm down his own son. The five-year-old Daichi actually had a tartan pattern in his hair and was beginning to whimper. His two-year-old sister Ranko was giggling and pointing at it. Her hand was being held by Shiratori Takiko, who was full on laughing. At four, she had been declared “still too little” to play, and was now clearly relishing in the fact that this helped her hair stay black.

Heiji gave Shinichi a look that indicated that he _wanted_ to swear—it was a look he got a lot around Kaito’s kids—and took off after the dangerous duo, who, to Shinichi’s dismay, now appeared to be chasing his son, who had kicked the ball and therefore been on the opposite side of the impromptu pitch when it had been made to explode in a shower of hair dye.

“Conan!” Mikomi yelled at her brother. “Head back this way! I’ll smack ‘em!”

“No, you will _not_ ,” Shinichi admonished, not putting his angry daughter down as he strode in Conan’s direction. The boy was only a year younger than the deviant twins, but unfortunately he had inherited Shinichi’s height problem, which was that he’d be several inches shorter than everyone else in his year until about eighth grade. The twins were gaining.

“ _GOTCHA, KIDS!_ ”

Toichi and Takumi jumped with a squeal as Kaito dropped out of a tree, yelling in Nakamori Ginzo’s voice, and caught his sons under his arms. The twins squealed and giggled as Kaito crossed his arms, holding the boys against his chest so he could stare inquisitively at both of them at once.

“Did you vanish in anticipation of needing to jump them?” Shinichi said dryly as he approached, still holding back his angry daughter and with his son hiding behind his legs. He winced as Mikomi landed a kick in his ribs in her struggle to get away. _She_ would never need strength-enhancing shoes. “Mikomi, _don’t_ kick me.”

“I want you two to go and put their hair back to normal,” Kaito said levelly, indicating the boys who were staring at each others’ hair and laughing, “because if your mother finds out that you’re causing trouble then she will murder me. What are you going to do?”

“Dye their hair back,” Takumi parroted obediently. He was the marginally more sensible of the two.

“Umm… Komi-chan too?” Toichi asked nervously, staring at the eight-year-old in Shinichi’s grip who was no longer struggling but was glaring evilly at the twins.

“If you’re capable of doing a tartan pattern with hair dye, you can _certainly_ pull off a plain dye from a distance,” Kaito admonished. “Now, if you ever get the desire to cause mayhem again, what are you _not_ going to do?”

“Get caught,” the boys chorused in unison with disturbing grins.

“Good boys. Go on.” He set the boys down, Toichi jumping onto Takumi’s shoulders to dye Mikomi’s hair before she could get free before both fled towards Daichi and Keiji. Shinichi rolled his eyes and set Mikomi down, at which point she took off after the two again. Conan started to sneak away, but Shinichi caught him.

“And what do you have to say for yourself?” he said sternly. Conan _eep_ ed nervously.

“I did nothing!” he said quickly. Shinichi narrowed his eyes.

“Like put hair dye inside the ball for those two terrors to pop and spread?” he challenged. “They are _much_ faster than you, Conan. And they _can_ pull off a distance dye. And yet your hair’s still black.” Conan shifted nervously, and Shinichi sighed heavily. Normally, Conan was an oddly shy child (looking at both parents and all four grandparents, Shinichi really didn’t know where it came from), tending to follow his bouncier older sister around, but whenever Toichi and Takumi were in the vicinity, he turned into a happy assistant to mayhem.  Shinichi had easily rumbled them since, while their capacity to wreak havoc was rapidly approaching Kaito’s at the height of his game, they didn’t have quite the polish—and grade-schoolers didn’t do secrets so well.

“Go with Makoto-ojisan and buy a new football,” he sighed, pushing him over to the slightly overwhelmed-looking karate champion.

“Ya’d think bein’ a parent woulda made ya at least a _little_ mature or responsible,” Heiji said, glaring at Kaito.

“Ya’d think,” Kaito agreed in precisely Heiji’s voice. Heiji gave him and evil glare, and then stomped off to try herding the kids that Makoto was leaving behind to go fetch a new ball with Conan.

“We’d better go help him,” Shinichi sighed, grabbing Kaito’s arm and tugging him after him, “and please try to _curb_ your sons’ enthusiasm for mayhem, not encourage it.”

“Shinichi, I’m a good actor, but I’m not _that_ good,” Kaito said, rolling his eyes but crouching down in front of the kids and making a dove pop out of his sleeve before producing a pack of cards and beginning to flip them through some simple tricks. They all stared wide-eyed, the animal-loving Takiko giggling happily as the dove roosted on her arm, and even Mikomi stopped attempting to murder Toichi and Takumi to watch. The boys had probably seen the trick a thousand times, and maybe even knew how to do it, but they still watched in wide-eyed wonder.

Shinichi couldn’t help smiling a little. They really did look like tiny little Kaito, and Chikage had once commented that the expressions on her grandsons’ faces when they watched their father do magic were exactly like Kaito’s had been when her late husband had done magic. She’d had a soft, sad smile on her face when she said that, a reminder that some scars never quite healed and that some damage never quite went away.

“Say, where’s the prick?” Heiji asked, jerking Shinichi out of his thoughts.

“At his large lady’s beck and call, naturally,” Kaito said, instantly guessing who Heiji meant and flipping through cards while barely looking at them.

“Ya mean bein’ whipped?” Heiji snorted. Kaito and Shinichi exchanged grins. “Don’t do that, it’s kinda creepy.”

“Trust me, Heiji,” Shinichi said, patting Heiji on the shoulder, “the further along Kazuha gets, the wiser the practice becomes.”

“Figured out the quickest route to your nearest all-night convenience store yet?” Kaito threw back with a grin. “Is this your card, ojouchan?” Ranko shrieked happily, patting at the card which was indeed her own—the Ace of Hearts. “Do you think your brother wants a shot?”

“Although at least Kazuha probably can’t hex you,” Shinichi observed.

*********************************************************************************************************

“It’s squint,” Akako called. “To the left a little.”

“There?” Yukiko asked, peering over her shoulder at the witch with her hand resting on the wreath that she was hanging over the fireplace.

“Perfect,” Akako said with a warm smile.

“You know, if we’d just let Kaito loose to do the decorations like he asked, it would’ve been done in five minutes,” Aoko pointed out.

“I am _not_ letting that man loose on my house,” Ran called firmly from the kitchen. “I don’t want the cupboards to explode every time I open them.”

“Wise call, Ran-san,” Saguru sighed, wandering through the kitchen. “Do you have mochi?”

Ran indicated a high cupboard with a spoon before turning back to her mother. “Now _slowly_ add the milk. It clumps if you put it all in at once before stirring.”

“Thank you,” Saguru said, grabbing a package of the treat and heading back to the living room. “There you are.”

“Ahhh, you’re so sweet,” Akako sighed, tearing into the food. “Mmm… he likes it too.” She stroked her massively distended stomach.

“Put a bow on that and we might be able to squeeze it under the tree,” Sumiko joked. “How far along are you?”

“Nearly nine months,” Saguru said, kissing his wife’s hair. “She’s due within the next week…”

“But she ain’t due right this second, so tear yerself away ta come help me put these lights on th’ roof, okay?” Kazuha said, sticking her head into the living room.

“Umm, I really think Heiji-kun’s going to hurt me if I let you do that…” Saguru said nervously, hurrying over to take the box from her.

“Then he don’t have to know, do he?”

“I’ll help him, you go gestate with Akako-chan,” Miwako laughed, following the blond officer out of the room.

“So do ya know what yer having yet?” Kazuha asked, stealing one of Akako’s mochi. “Couldn’t believe it when I realized, m’self…”

“It’s a boy,” Akako said, stroking her belly softly. “Do you know yet? Or is it too early?”

“Too early ta tell,” Kazuha sighed, “but findin’ out at all is sorta like an early present…”

“So what made you and your boys finally decide to have kids?” Yukiko asked, twirling tinsel around the large tree, Eri following her with baubles. “You’re a few years behind the rest of your friends…”

“And several behind us, but our case was just youthful negligence,” Eri said, rolling her eyes. “Baka says he’s a ‘great detective’, but can’t even observe if he’s wearing a—”

“It’s because both of your hours have let up recently, right?” Ran said, poking her head out of the kitchen to cut her mother off with red cheeks.

“Kinda,” Kazuha said. “We were sorta talkin’ about it recently. Wasn’t really an issue before, ‘cause have you _seen_ the hours a rookie cop’s gotta put in?”

“Oh, I know, Saguru must have spent twenty hours a day out of the house when he started on the force,” Akako said, sighing and rolling her eyes.

“That’s why I prefer being a teacher,” Sumiko laughed. “School  holidays!” They all giggled a bit.

“Sorry I’m late!” Sonoko called, slamming the front door behind her. “I got cranberries! And check who I ran into!” There was a _thump_ in the hall, which sounded like the box of decorations that Aoko had gone upstairs to get.

“Oh, it’s been ages!” they heard her cry. “Good grief, you’ve all shot right up…”

“Nice to see you again, Aoko-chan,” came the soft voice of Haibara Ai.

“Ai-chan!” Ran cried, charging out of the kitchen and glomping her adopted little sister. “Merry Christmas! Ah, Ayumi-chan, Genta-kun and Mitsuhiko-kun too! How are you all?”

“Merry Christmas, Ran-neechan,” the other three high-schoolers said, Ayumi in a sing-song voice, Mitsuhiko politely (as always), and Genta in a distracted fashion.

“Why’s everyone at your house?” Mitsuhiko asked curiously, staring into the melee.

“Because it’s the biggest after Saguru-kun and Akako-chan’s…” Ran explained.

“And Saguru’s mother appeared yesterday and took over the house,” Akako growled from the living room. Saguru’s mother deeply disliked Akako and the feeling was mutual. She hadn’t even turned up to the wedding, and Ran was frankly shocked that she’d turn up _now_ ;  she and Saguru had hardly been close, something that had only gotten worse given her conduct after the death of Saguru’s father, and her absence from the wedding seemed to have put their relationship far beyond repair. She spent most of her time in England, but whenever she turned up she and Saguru fought, ending either in Saguru having to pay to put her up in the most expensive hotel he could find, or, as seemed to be the case here, Akako stalking straight out of the house and the pair of them not returning until the woman returned to England. It made Ran a little sad. She knew how it felt to have your mother leave you, but at least Eri had worked at maintaining a relationship with Ran and had respected her choice to stay with her father even if she didn’t like it. Saguru’s mother clearly didn’t have any patience for anyone or anything that wasn’t 100% under her control.

Genta lightened the mood by asking, “Do I smell pie?”

“It’s for dinner— _later_ ,” Ran said, thwapping him on the outstretched hand with a spoon. “And I’m sorry to drive you all away the second you got here, but we really have plenty of hands here and…”

“And the guys took the kids to Beika Park and are likely drowning,” Aoko said, picking up her box and continuing into the living room. “Can you do us a big favour and go save them from the kids?”

“Particularly _her_ kids?” Akako laughed, indicating Aoko.

“No problem,” Ai said. “I’d like to speak to Shinichi-niisan anyway…”

“Beika Park, and run for their lives!” Yukiko called with a giggled. Ran locked eyes briefly with Ai before the girl turned, and then, for an even briefer moment, Ayumi.

What confused her was that each girl had precisely the same expression in her eyes.

 _What…_? she wondered, watching the group of kokosei-meitantei head back down the street, taking the bag of food from Sonoko as she returned to the kitchen. Even without “Conan-kun”, they had remained detectives, and despite only being seventeen they were now perhaps the most renowned detectives in Japan. They were as sharp as Shinichi had been at that age.

_And maybe they’re putting some old pieces together._

*********************************************************************************************************

“Reinforcements!” Heiji sighed happily, with the air of a drowning man spotting an oasis. Shinichi glanced in the direction that he was looking to see the Shonen Tantei-Dan approach.

“Ai-neechan!” Mikomi screamed happily, instantly taking off in the direction of her favourite neechan. “Ayumi-neechan!”

“Hey, Komi-chan,” Ayumi greeted her as Ai caught her in a quick hug, before doing the same with Conan. “Merry Christmas, you guys!”

“Merry Christmas!” Genta yelled, charging forwards into the new football game. Mitsuhiko watched him go with raised eyebrows, then went over to Shinichi, since he was the nearest of the adults sidelining the game to contain the winter mayhem.

“ _He_ hasn’t grown up in the past ten years,” he grumbled. “Kokosei-tantei indeed…”

Shinichi chuckled. “How’s business for you four anyway?”

“Booming, of course,” Ayumi laughed, wandering over to join the chat while Ai was still being swarmed by Mikomi and Conan. “We learned from the best—you and Conan-kun!”

“In other words,” Mitsuhiko added, lowering his voice, “you.”

Shinichi felt himself automatically freeze up at the mention of the old secret, but what good was hiding ten years after the fact? From his friends, of all people?

“So when’d you figure it out?” he murmured with a little smile, leaning over so that Mitsuhiko and Ayumi could hear him over the happy screams of the kids as Genta made a tackle that took pretty much all of them out at once. He couldn’t help feeling a little proud, too. He _had_ practically trained these kids single-handedly, after all, and he’d be very disappointed if they had never figured it out, and not a little insulted if they’d simply forgotten Conan-kun altogether.

When he was their age, he had already been fighting the Syndicate for a year. The thought made him oddly nostalgic, in the way that makes you love the present so much because it’s nothing like the past.

“Can’t remember how long, but there was always something a little annoying about you turning up almost the second that Conan-kun left,” Ayumi said. “I always felt like there was something familiar about you…” Shinichi laughed nervously, raising his left hand like his wedding ring was a warning charm.

“No hitting on a married man, Ayumi,” Mitsuhiko laughed. “Besides, Genta’s bigger than him.”

“Anyway,” Ayumi said, aiming a lazy punch at Mitsuhiko (he was lucky it was lazy, as she had followed in Ran’s footsteps and joined a karate club in middle school, even convincing Ai to join too, to Shinichi’s private terror) which he dodged easily with his kendo instincts. “We didn’t really have anything certain until we were visiting a while ago, and Genta had a peek into some of your old photo albums from childhood…”

“At first we thought, ‘that’s impossible’,” Mitsuhiko sighed, “but…”

“But the thought wouldn’t go away and they shared their suspicions with me,” Ai said from half an inch behind Shinichi, a gesture that she hadn’t been tall enough to pull off with sufficient terror for a decade. “If it makes you feel any better, none of us really care…”

“… Though I _am_ pissed off at you for leading me on like that,” Ayumi growled, her fists twitching in a way that was disturbingly familiar. “You were my first love! That’s _sacred_ to a girl!” Shinichi inched carefully away from both of the girls, trying not to look utterly terrified.

“… You ladies’ man, you,” Ai laughed. “We just thought you ought to know.”

“Anything else I ought to know?” Shinichi asked, grinning even as he felt the old itch of phantom glasses on his nose.

“Yeah, Ran-neechan wants you all back at six,” Mitsuhiko supplied. “She said dinner’ll be ready then, and the decorations, and then the kids can sleep over for whatever you’re planning for tomorrow.”

Ai grinned. “Oh, they’re going to _love_ it…”

*********************************************************************************************************

“Whose idea was this?”

“I’m relatively certain that it’s Kaito.”

“Guilty.”

“ ‘Nother successful deduction, eh?”

“Hush,” Saguru murmured. “We don’t want to wake them up _yet_.”

“Coffee’s on standby in the kitchen,” Shinichi murmured, stifling a yawn, like he hadn’t already drunk almost an entire pot himself. Getting up at 4 was not something the meitantei took kindly to, even for his kids.

“How do I look?” Agasa asked nervously.

“Like Santa,” Kaito said reassuringly. It was probably a good thing that he was doing most of the work for tonight’s—or this morning’s—stunts, since he was the only one capable of being fully awake so late— _early_. “Misa-san did a great job with the suit. The kids are going to love it.”

“They’d better,” Heiji grumbled. “’Kay, now?”

“Go for it,” Kaito said, winking. Shinichi sighed and promptly started making a racket in the chimney with a broomstick. Heiji peered down the hall towards Mikomi and Conan’s bedrooms, where the various children were bunking, and Kaito popped out of the window and onto the roof. Wataru and Ninzaburo helped Agasa lift the huge bag of presents while Saguru and Makoto prodded a few around the tree. Heiji flicked the light on when he heard doors creaking open.

“They’re up,” he confirmed, smiling slightly as he heard the whispers and stifled giggles and _sshhh_ noises being passed between the children.

*********************************************************************************************************

Mikomi woke up to the sound of annoyingly familiar giggling. Without opening her eyes, she reached over and grabbed an ankle. She identified the accompanying yelp of surprise as her brother.

“Conan, why are you sneaking into my room with Thing 1 and Thing 2?” she hissed.

“It’s 4am!” Toichi whispered.

“It’s past midnight!” Takumi added redundantly.

“It’s _Christmas_!” Conan nearly cried, but quietly.

The word was an instant stimulant. Ranko and Takiko instantly popped up, Ranko whimpering because it was dark and Takiko tripping over Mikomi as she fumbled for the light switch. Somebody stopped her at the door.

“Don’t!” Keiji hissed. “Listen!”

Mikomi crept over to the door, leading Ranko by the hand, the baka twins quieting down as they all strained their ears.

Then they heard it. Echoing _thumps_ as something fell down the chimney, then the rustle of cloth and heavy footsteps. Mikomi almost yelped.

“It’s _Santa_!” the twins chorused in awed unison.

“San’a?” Ranko murmured, confused. She was too little to remember Christmas last year, and Mikomi wondered if she was big enough to understand now. She felt rather than saw Daichi pass her, picking up his little sister onto his back.

“He’s here to bring us presents, Kotchan,” he whispered. Ranko giggled, though Takiko shushed her for it.

“We’ve gotta sneak up on him,” Conan whispered. “Maybe we’ll get _extra_ presents!”

“Follow me,” Mikomi hissed. Toichi, Takumi and Conan gave her identical glares.

“Why _you_?” Conan asked. The twins shushed him.

“I’m oldest,” she said. “C’mon, Keiji.” She crept down the hall before any of them could stop her, occasionally turning to shush the younger children as they trailed behind her, whispering and giggling.

They piled against the living room door, all trying to peer through the crack of light.

A fat red figure with white trimmings was placing presents under the tree. That was enough for the terrible threesome, who burst through the door and made to glomp Santa.

“Ho-ho-ho!”

*********************************************************************************************************

“This… is a madhouse,” Akako said, settling herself into place around the huge dinner table.

“This is children. Look forward to it,” Ran chuckled, snatching Conan up from under the table. “You’re all going to be _good_ tonight, okay?”

“ _I’ll_ be good,” Conan insisted. Ran looked up and locked eyes with Aoko.

“It’ll be okay,” Aoko said. “They’re scared of Ai-chan.” She nodded over to where the two boys were pulling three chairs into a protective fortress around themselves while Ai glared at them, tapping her foot, her foster father Akai Shuuichi competing to have a scarier glare and Jodie bent over double as she tried not to laugh at the little pink bows that had appeared in the hair of both.

“Can’t ya put down th’ coffee  fer five seconds?” Kazuha yelled from down the table. “Yer makin’ me jealous.”

“Jetlag,” Yuusaku replied by way of defence.

“That DSi that Keiji won’t let go of,” Shinichi gave as his defence. It sounded reasonable. He and Heiji had led a valiant effort to rescue Agasa from the children’s clutches which had largely depended on filling the children’s hands with presents long enough for Agasa to sneak off and Kaito to set off the light show that he’d set up on the roof to look like Santa’s sleigh flying away. Ran was quite proud of him for not falling asleep during the day. Well, they just had Christmas dinner left, and then he could go home and sleep.

Of course, this was somewhat his fault. Influenced by a number of present-laden childhood Christmases in the States, he had told Mikomi about Santa, and she had instantly spread the word and begun demanding Western-style Christmases, astutely noticing that believing in Santa would net her more presents. The other children had joined in as soon as they were old enough, which tended to be around Ranko’s age, and now here they were, setting up meetings with Santa and holding massive Christmas dinners. The Japanese toy industry was going to owe Shinichi _big_ for this.

“Chikage-chan! How are you?” Yukiko squealed brightly, clearly not feeling the jetlag like her husband. She gave her friend a gentle hug.

“Feeling fit and hungry!” Chikage laughed. It had taken years of reconstructive surgery to get rid of the scars from the accident and even now a few of the worst still marred her, including one down the left side of her face that she hid by growing her hair out _very_ long. Still, she could walk with a limp less pronounced than Yuusaku’s, and didn’t have to do everything one-handed anymore. She still lived with Kaito and Aoko, and was an effective disciplinarian as her injuries meant that her grandsons “hate making baachan sad”, a guilt trip that she actively manipulated.

“Hey, Ran-chan!” Miwako called. She was dragging Keiji behind her, predictably still enthralled by the twin glowing screens and therefore not looking where he was going, and followed by Wataru and Ninzaburo, who were in deep discussion about some tricky murder case. Daichi was peering over Keiji’s shoulder at the DSi, his sister in Sumiko’s arms as she tried to soothe the toddler—Ranko was clearly feeling intimidated by the large restaurant, even though given that there were thirty-eight of them they had most of the restaurant all to themselves. Sumiko’s hair was also getting long; in a bid not to look like Miwako’s twin whenever she put contacts in, she’d started growing it out and bleaching it too, so it was a soft brown. Much hugging and squealing was exchanged between the women greeting each other, much handshaking and eyerolls between the men, much cooing from Yukiko and Eri as they greeted their grandchildren; a very Western Christmas, Ran felt.

And it was all going normally until Akako started yelling.

“Saguru,” she cried. “Saguru!” Saguru rubbed his eyes and turned from a conversation he was having with Ginzo, and then paled rapidly as he saw his wife doubling up, liquid dripping from the chair.

“Oh, no,” Aoko gasped. “Her water!”

“Crap. Excuse me!” Shinichi called, trying to flag down the restaurant owner. “We have a situation…”

“Can everyone put down their mobiles? We only need one ambulance and from the looks of it we’re about to summon twelve,” Yuusaku called dryly.

“I don’t need an ambulance, the contractions aren’t bad,” Akako said through gritted teeth. “Just get a car.”

“Come on, we’ll get you to the car,” Saguru said, lifting her up and helping her towards the doors. Aoko helped.

“Kaito, keep an eye on the boys, I’ll call you first when the baby’s born,” she called. “Ran-chan, this dinner cost a fortune so you guys better eat it—oh, and maybe bring us some turkey in a bag.”

“No problemo,” Kaito called. “Good luck!”

“Best wishes!” Ran called. Akako waved back and then gripped Saguru _very_ tightly in the shoulder, feeling another contraction. Aoko and Saguru carefully helped her out, a couple of waiters approaching to clean up the chair and bring a new one.

“Erm, I’m not sure that you’ll want to sit there, there’s quite a stain on the floor and it shall take a little while to clean up…” the head waiter said nervously.  “If you could all wait just a little while longer…”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want to delay you,” Ran insisted. “You have other people here to cater for, too…”

“Then how about we kill some time?” Kaito said with a grin. In an instant and a puff of merry red smoke, all of the dishware on the far side of the table vanished (Chikage quickly murmured to the waiter that it would be returned at the end) and Kaito hopped up on the table, striding along it as if it were a stage. Toichi and Takumi squealed happily, then rounded up the other children to sit cross-legged on the floor about eight feet away from the “stage”. The restaurant quietened as people stared at the spectacle.

“Ladies and Gentlemen!” Kaito called. Ginzo rolled his eyes but crouched down behind his grandsons anyway, the entire restaurant now staring at Kaito. “Due to a happy event I understand that dinner will be slightly delayed, but I feel that Christmas is a time for good cheer in all things, so who feels like spending this extra time on a little magic show?” A number of children from other tables cheered, though Toichi and Takumi were cheering the loudest. They clearly loved watching their tousan perform. A few adults clapped politely as well. “I sense a little scepticism. Never mind, I’ve been doing this for years and I’m confident that I can blow that away quickly enough! Shall we start with the basics?”

Two card tricks and one lost mobile phone materialization later and the entire restaurant was eating out of his hands. Ran caught Shinichi’s eye and grinned. Legally or not, Kaito loved the spotlight, and he captivated people with ease. He controlled the crowd as skilfully as he controlled the doves that were now popping up all over the place, to the startled but delighted shrieks of the diners. The waiters looked a little grateful to have some of the time pressure eased up. Shinichi and Heiji both kept watching Kaito closely, probably figuring out his tricks as he did them but thankfully having learned to keep their mouths shut. Even Heiji wasn’t tactless enough to ruin the magic for the kids. Kazuha looked quite proud.

Finally, on a signal from the head waiter, Kaito made fresh bunches of red and white roses with green stems appear on each table.

“Thank you, Ladies and Gentlemen, you’ve been a wonderful audience!” He called, bowing to the cheering and clapping. “My name is Kuroba Kaito, The Mirror Master, and this has been a free plug for my show! All this and more in the Ekoda Theatre of the Arts! Thank you and enjoy your meal!” He hopped down from the table, dishware and roses reappearing in his wake, and was instantly glomped by his sons.

“You have a wonderful stage presence, Kai-chan,” Yukiko said happily as they sat down.

“I’m impressed, I get so crowd-shy these days…” sighed Hidemi, who had been happily promoted to a newscaster as her job as a NOC had left her unhappy with being in front of large amounts of people—live, anyway. Eisuke patted her consolingly on the elbow, before returning to leaning over Keiji’s shoulder and giving him tips.

“And quite exceptional nerve,” Yuusaku chuckled, setting his cane against the table as he sat down too. Kaito pried his sons off of his legs and handed them off to Chikage, who sat them down in their seats and made them swear to behave, shrugging with a grin.

“The magic can happen anytime, anywhere…” he said.

Despite the conspicuous absence of Aoko, Saguru and Akako, the meal was cheerful and went well; the only marring moment was a man dropping dead from cyanide poisoning at the next table, but given that theirs contained two FBI agents, one ex-CIA, eight cops, five amateur detectives and two professional PIs, the case wrapped up exceptionally fast, and frankly Ran knew that with all of them together they were lucky to get away with just _one_ body. The kids were thankfully unperturbed, partially due to a large number of adults placing themselves between the children and the crime scene and largely due to their experience of their parents’ luck. Conan even said “Not _again_ ,” reminding Ran to talk to Shinichi about how, while following his father to crime scenes as a child had clearly been an educational experience for him, he was _not_ to bring Conan with him on a case. That was what neighbours were for.

It wasn’t until midway through dessert—and Kaito, with his mother distracted by his sons and his wife not around to stop him, had gotten into the chocolate ice cream and was causing steadily increasing amounts of havoc up and down the table—that Kaito’s mobile rang. That for whatever reason it happened to be down Kazuha’s top at the time was cause for much shrieking, laughter and a spate of language from Heiji that sent mothers diving to cover their children’s ears and fathers diving to cover Heiji’s mouth. Kaito laughed, at least having the decency to look embarrassed, then popped his mobile up into his hand and promptly teleported onto the chandelier. Ran let go of Mikomi and Conan and glanced up, straining her ears to see if he was talking to Aoko.

“Okay, just a mo.” Ignoring the irritated-looking waiters, Kaito craned his head down over them and yelled “It’s a boy! Everybody say congrats!” He held out his phone and they loudly chorused “CONGRATULATIONS!” into it.

“Did they say what ‘e’s called?” Kazuha called.

“They haven’t decided yet,” Kaito replied, returning to ground level once he had judged Heiji’s rage to have calmed sufficiently. “I’m gonna head for the hospital now. Kaasan, you mind taking the boys? Oh,” and he clicked his fingers, “he asked you to come too, Shinichi. And Ran.”

“Us?” Shinichi said, raising an eyebrow. Then he shrugged and turned. “Komi-chan! How do you and Conan feel about staying with Baachan and Jiichan for the afternoon?”

“I already asked them to call me Yuki-chan!” Yukiko said huffily. “Baachan makes me sound like such an old lady!”

*********************************************************************************************************

Akako rocked her little boy gently as he fell asleep, crying and feeding over. He was bald, so they wouldn’t know his hair colour until a little started growing, but she’d seen flashes of green whenever he’d opened his eyes. They hadn’t named him yet, but she had an idea of what she wanted to call him, and she could sense that Saguru had deduced what it was. She wanted to wait until the others were here, though. Kudo Shinichi knew what had happened to him. She felt, vaguely, that maybe she did too.

“Heya,” Kaito said, popping his head around the door. “So it’s human? No devil horns or tail or wings or anything?” he managed to duck and leap at the same time as both Aoko and Saguru swung at him.

“Oh, he’s adorable!” Ran sighed, beginning to coo as she homed in on the little blue bundle. Shinichi just shook Saguru’s hand. “Did you have any ideas for a name?”

“I think Akako has one,” Saguru said softly, closing the door behind him.

“Jesus?” Kaito suggested brightly. Saguru thwapped him in the head, the fool grinning as he didn’t bother to duck. “What? Haven’t you read the Christian story?”

“I…” Akako cuddled the baby a little tighter. “I think I know what happened to my brother. I have a vague idea, anyway. I know what he probably became, and I know that he probably died… _that_ day.”

Ran’s smile faded, Shinichi’s face remaining blank. They remembered that day.

_Gin, taking advantage of the girls’ moment off-balance, dove for Red Rum’s discarded gun, aiming it at the girls. Hattori let out a scream of rage as he ran down the stairs, and Gin turned, shooting at him instead. He was only saved when Hakuba, who had come bursting through the door, tackled him and rolled, the bullets scraping across his back close enough to tear his coat, protecting Hattori rather like Ran had once protected Ai from Vermouth, who was dodging bullets as she attempted to get close to Kir. The intruder grabbed the balcony and leapt over._

_“Kuroba’s bringing the cops, they’ll be here soon!” Akako screamed, following Hakuba into the room, distracting Gin from the dark shape. He changed his aim to her, then froze for a moment, his cold green eyes widening._

_That moment was all Akai needed to blow his fucking head off._

“I only realized it years later,” Akako said quietly. It flashed through her head again, a face that she’d only noticed out of the corner of her eye and subconsciously forgotten, long silver hair and shocked green eyes and a wash of red…

“I’m sorry, Akako,” Shinichi said quietly. “I figured out early on who your brother was, but… I didn’t really want to tell you, yet. You seemed so confused and lost as it was.”

“I was,” Akako sighed, “and I was even more when I thought… but no. The man who died that day was not my brother.” Shinichi opened his mouth. She raised one white hand. He closed it politely. “Not the brother that I remember. The little boy that I loved died before I did. It was his shell that was blown away. I mourned for him long ago, and will not remember him as a murderer. I can’t. I know it sounds strange.”

“It brings you peace,” Saguru murmured, sitting on the edge of the bed and putting one arm around her. “How you deal with your past is yours to decide and yours alone.”

“I’m glad you can find peace with it, Akako,” Shinichi said with a little smile. “I’m not sure I could. You are very strong.”

“You have no idea how much of a compliment that is,” Akako said with a little laugh. “Anyway, this is all sort of a prelude… Saguru… I want to name him Jin.”

They all looked down at the little blue bundle. He was tiny, he was beautiful, he was innocent. “I have no objection,” Saguru said softly.

“Yeah,” Ran said. “It’s like… giving him a second chance. A new start, in a normal life.”

“Normal’s boring,” Kaito complained, but his smile wasn’t an idiot’s, for once. “But I think you’ll be a good kaasan. You’re going to absolutely love the little guy to death, aren’t you?”

“Probably,” Akako said with a rueful smile. “I still can’t believe… I wasn’t ever sure that I’d be ready for a baby. I didn’t ever think I’d have the right to create a life, to be responsible for raising a child into a good human being… But…”

“I think,” Saguru said, kissing her hair, “you’ll be a wonderful mother. And he will be a happy, safe, loved and overall _good_ child.”

“Konnichiwa, Jin-chan,” Aoko said brightly, leaning in to peer at the little bundle. “I’m sure everyone can’t wait to meet you.”

Shinichi smiled too, ignoring the tiny old reflex, the automatic twinge of fear at the sound of the name. Some scars never healed and some damage could not be undone. But little by little, closure could be achieved. Little by little, bad memories could be replaced with good, and he was more than happy to replace those memories with ones of this little boy, and his children, a generation growing into a world significantly brighter than it had been before their births.

They were born into a world where their hope could be rewarded.

“Happy Birthday, Jin-chan,” Akako said, smiling brightly even as tears glimmered at the edge of her eyes, “and Merry Christmas.”

**Author's Note:**

> For all those who read When Pandora’s Box Is Opened and begged for a little more to the story. Merry Christmas everybody, and Thank You! ♥


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